Maria Menounos Talks Marriage, Babies & Career — What’s Next?

Maria Menounos has been in front of the camera for years, but her new reality show, ‘Chasing Maria Menounos’ really takes viewers behind the scenes. Maria chatted EXCLUSIVELY with HollywoodLife.com all about the series, her career, boyfriend and babies!

Oxygen’s Chasing Maria Menounos has brought out a whole new side of Maria Menounos! Viewers have known and loved the TV host for years from Today to Access Hollywoodto Extra, and now, they can see what she’s like off the job. Plus, what’s next for Maria? Keep reading to find out!

‘Chasing Maria Menounos': Maria Tells All

The April 8th episode of Chasing Maria Menounos brings Maria Menounos back to her hometown roots, as she travels back to Boston with her longtime boyfriend, Keven. The couple makes an emotional visit to an old friend, in the town where their lives started together. Next week’s April 15 episode sees the couple visiting a sperm doctor (they really don’t hide anything from the cameras)!

If you haven’t tuned into Maria’s show yet, it revolves around her life with Keven and her Greek Orthodox parents — they all live together! Keep reading for our exclusive Q&A with Maria.

HollywoodLife: Why did you decide to do reality TV?

Maria: “I don’t know what the turning point was, but when you see the kind of different things that I have been scared to do in my life, whether it was Dancing With The Stars or wrestling, all those things turned out well. I always say face your fears. We [Maria and her longterm boyfriend Keven] realized that there were more pros than cons to doing this. One of the biggest pros being able to spend more time with my family so we decided to do it.”

Is there something that you hope viewers will learn about you by watching your reality show?

“We live in Hollywood, but we aren’t Hollywood. One night, I’m at The Oscars in a really gorgeous, expensive gown and the next night we are at Chili’s in our sweats. People wouldn’t really necessarily believe that you aren’t caught up in that whole world, and so I think it’s interesting.”

What will we see between you and your longtime boyfriend, Keven?

“Keven and I have been together [for] 16 years. We’re not married, we don’t have kids and I think one of the interesting subjects we tackle in this show is something that a lot of women are grappling with right now — when is the right time to do all those things? I can’t be the only one that is a little freaked out by all of this!”

What’s the secret to your relationship with Keven?

“Kevin has been comfortable being the man behind the woman for so many years, and that’s such a great example for men that it is okay.”

“It’s hard. It definitely gets annoying. You have my whole big fat Greek family element in everything. My parents will stop at nothing to get us to have kids and to get married and do all that.”

Do you want to have kids?

“The clock is starting to tick. I definitely need to start focusing on it a little bit more, but I want to squeeze out as much time as I can.”

Why is that? Do you still have more you’d like to accomplish in your career?

“I don’t think it’s anything specific, but I just don’t feel like it’s time. I feel like right now I’m in a really creative spot where I am pitching and selling shows and things that I’ve always wanted to do, and I feel like I wouldn’t be able to do that if I had children right now. I’m not superwoman.”

But you definitely want to get married?

“The marriage thing is not as important to me, but the kids, I wouldn’t want to miss out on the chance. There are moments that I do daydream what it would be like if we decided not to do it.”

What’s Next For Maria?

Maria confirmed to HollywoodLife.com that Chasing Maria Menounos will continue to show her hard at work on Extra, as Mario Lopez‘s co-host.

“You definitely see us at Extra behind the scenes,” Maria told us EXCLUSIVELY about the entertainment news show. “You will see several different health issues that affect my job. There’s a lot of that going on.”

She also clued us in on what could be next — a morning show!

“I love the morning space,” revealed Maria. “I think it is so fun to be live with people waking up. My time on the Today show was incredible.”

She co-hosted Live! With Kelly And Michael on the morning of this EXCLUSIVE interview and told us all about it. “I’m always honored when Kelly [Ripa] has me fill in for her. It’s always a great time. Michael [Strahan] and I have such a fun time together.”

Maria is also getting ready for the release of her second book, “The EveryGirl’s Guide to Diet and Fitness,” which will be out June 2014.

Chasing Maria Menounos airs Tuesdays at 10/9c on Oxygen.

HollywoodLifers, have you tuned into Maria’s Oxygen reality show yet? And do you want to see Maria on a morning show — perhaps Live! or the Today show?